pantry & freezer week - day 6

Yesterday was nearly a perfect day.  The weather was gorgeous, my first session as a "personal trainer" went really well, I got in a good workout, ate some good food, enjoyed a hike with the hubs and the pup and got some time to do absolutely nothing.

The day wasn't perfect because A) I wasn't able to run due to the knee (feels okay, but need to let it rest) and B) sometimes when you try to be creative in the kitchen, you fail.  And boy did I FAIL!  More on that later!

I hit up the library after the Y to grab Michael Pollan's book, In Defense of Food.  I am on a kick with one of my 2011 goals reading 11 non-fiction books, and this will be book #2.  I am also currently reading The China Study by T. Collin Campbell.  Interesting note - did you know that the American Cancer Society funded Campbell's study linking protein consumption to cancer incidents? I was hooked when I read that little tidbit in the first few pages.

Has anyone read either of these books?  Thoughts?

I whipped up a delicious post workout smoothie.  Think Starbucks pumpkin spice latte.  Okay, it might have not been exactly like that, it has been a while since I've had one. Regardless, it was good.

In the mix::

• 1 whole frozen banana
• 1/4 - 1/3 cup frozen pureed squash
• splash water
• sprinkles of cinnamon, ginger and cloves
• 1/2 scoop caramel latte protein powder

I need to remember this one!  The caramel protein powder really pumped this post workout smoothie up a notch.

We heated up some leftover lentil tacos for lunch and then hit the road for a hike with the pup at a county park. This is one of our go to parks for hikes. It was a bit muddy today, but it felt great to get out and enjoy the sunshine.






Bald Eagle...see it?  I absolutely love winter in SE Iowa just for the fact that all the Bald Eagles hang out in the area. Somedays I have seen over 20 hanging out in fields or on the river.  Simply majestic.



























Such a beautiful day!  All these photos are straight out of the camera!

Since both of us were busy for Valentine's Day last Monday, we decided we would celebrate on Saturday.  I had great ideas for dinner (baked squash ravioli) but didn't have everything on hand so came up with plan B.

Plan B - my most creative failure to date.

My idea was to create a spring roll using rice paper (pantry), wild rice (pantry), cranberries (freezer) and a few other random items. Interesting - check.  Creative - check. Well, it turned out okay - Nic ate three and I ate one.  The flavors were mild, but something about it just didn't work with me.  The sauce (a mix of white wine vinegar, soy sauce, oil and honey) was probably the best part and drowned out the mild flavor of the wild rice mix.



I told Nic he didn't have to be nice and keep eating them, but he claimed he thought they were okay.  He also came up with the name for these rolls after a quick exchange between the two of us:

N: How would you classify that dish?
K: Crappy.
N: No, I mean - Asain-Vegetarian-Northern Minnesotan.

So thus - our first failure of pantry and freezer week has been dubbed the Asian-Vegetarian-Northern Minnesotan Disaster.


I switched to a bruised orange for dinner. Much better!

Thankfully all of my creative ideas did not fall short - dessert was a roaring success!

Pumpkin Cranberry Cookies

Soft, moist, and kind of healthy - I ate seven of them...(and then four for breakfast!)



In the mix::

• 1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill 10-Grain Hot Cereal
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 t baking powder
• 1/4 t baking soda
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds - toasted (unless you burn them like I did...)
• heavy sprinkle cinnamon
• 1 egg
• 2/3 cup squash puree or pumpkin
• 2 t orange zest
• 1/2 t vanilla
• 1 cup whole cranberries - chopped
• 1/2 cup while chocolate chips

In a small bowl, mix the first eight ingredients. In another bowl, mix the next four ingredients. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet and stir until just combined.  Fold in the cranberries and white chocolate chips.

Bake at 350* for 10-12 minutes. 

Promptly eat seven of them and keep telling yourself they are healthy cookies...

Really though - these were good!  The dough by itself is not too sweet, but the addition of the white chocolate chips really makes these taste amazing.  

Over cookies and wine, we exchanged Valentine's gifts.  By the way - I am not a huge lover of Valentine's Day and was not planning on doing anything special. But then over the past few weeks, Nic kept hinting that he had something up his sleeve for me.  So - we used Valentine's Day as an excuse to give each other gifts.  Works for me!

Nic actually gave me my gift a few days ago -  I think he was too excited to wait.  Lately he has been going over to a friends house to help him out with a few house projects, or so I thought, but in reality, they were creating something for me to display my race medals on.

How sweet is that?!  The board...well, I guess the husband is pretty sweet too! ;)

I gave Nic a bike rack and a pannier to make commuting to and from work a little bit more enjoyable come Spring (and trips Hy-Vee for groceries easier).

Jack got the box for his Valentine's gift.

We capped off the night lounging on the couch catching up on a few episodes of Bones.  Perfecto...except for the huge kitchen failure.